training & development
Training Tuesdays
CANADIAN COMPANY MAKES WEEKLY TRAINING SESSIONS COUNT
Since London, Ont.-based
Voices.com first began setting
aside 30 minutes each week for
company-wide training sessions
in 2011, the results have been a more
knowledgeable, productive and happier
workforce.
The company, which provides an online
marketplace connecting businesses
with voice-over talent, brought in weekly
training sessions after its employees had
cited an interest for additional on-thejob
training in an annual employee survey.
“Training Tuesdays” target a multitude of
rotating topics that are discussed for 30
minutes once per week.
At its core, Voices.com’s business relies
on identifying voice talent and matching it
with prospective customers. But the skills
needed to evaluate voice talent – basically
the skills of a casting director – are specific
skills that most of the growing company’s
new hires have had little to no previous
training on.
Because of its centrality to the company’s
bottom line, voice talent evaluation
training is a Training Tuesday session that
is frequently offered. But it is far from the
only training exercise that the company
runs.
“Usually, during a 12-week period,
we’ll loop through the same training session.
This way, people know what training
sessions are coming up and where they
can learn that knowledge and become
more seasoned employees,” said Kaitlyn
Annaert, the company’s human resources
manager.
GROWING THROUGH
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
In one popular recent training day session,
employees were taught how to improve
their LinkedIn profiles, including what
company information they should or
shouldn’t post on the popular professional
networking website. Other well-received
sessions include training on what is and
isn’t appropriate to post about the company
on Twitter, Facebook and other social
media platforms.
Training Tuesdays are also used to
train staff on a wide assortment of skills
and company and regulatory policies:
from how to master different elements of
Salesforce, the company’s customer relationship
management (CRM) system, to
how to make the most of the Voices.com
employee benefit packages, to lessons on
how staff can more productively adhere to
internal processes and procedures.
“Sometimes things can be swept under
the rug if they’re not practiced all the time,”
said Annaert. “We try to reiterate what’s
important so that everyone can stay sharp.”
Training sessions take place in Time
Square, a large, open concept meeting
space in a prominent area in the office, replete
with couches, beanbag chairs and a
TV screen for slide presentations. The casual
setting ensures that everyone can feel
comfortable and relaxed as they take in the
information.
Invites for each session generally go out
on the company’s CRM a day in advance,
giving each employee a chance to do some
By Shawn Gill
reading on the session’s topic and then decide
whether or not to sign up.
INFORMATION IS POWERFUL
Using Salesforce, the company’s HR department
can track which employees are
attending what sessions, who’s getting
the training they need and who, perhaps,
is not. If it’s determined that someone is
struggling in a particular area, HR can
quickly check whether or not that person
has attended the related training session
and use that information to determine
whether or not to make it mandatory that
the person attend the training session the
next time it is offered.
“The training sessions really help with
quarterly performance reviews. We’ll look
at what areas each employee has been trying
to improve and putting effort into, and
from there you get a sense for who really
wants to expand their knowledge base,”
said Annaert.
Employee buy-in for Training Tuesdays
is reflected in high attendance rates at the
weekly sessions as well as the positive feedback
the weekly training sessions receive in
Voices.com’s annual employee satisfaction
survey.
A sales-related Training Tuesday session
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2015 ❚ 29